Star Wars Cookies for Santa

Our Christmas Eve tradition is baking cookies for Santa. We found these Star Wars cookie cutters at Williams-Sonoma and figured Santa was a Star Wars fan too. Here's how it turned out:

Sweet Surrender Bakery - Bakersfield, CA

Our family drove through Bakersfield, California this holiday in pouring rain and stopped at Sweet Surrender Bakery. We saw Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate Crazy Good episode in which Giada picks Sweet Surrender's Matterhorn Cake as crazy good. The cake is crazy good and so are the lemon bars and pink champagne cupcakes. Here are my photos:

White, Matterhorn & Pink Champagne cupcakes
Party table filled with gift baskets
Jars of candy
Holiday decor

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my readers. I truly appreciate your support and patience during my first year of blogging. I hope your holiday is filled with peace, love and hot cocoa with marshmallows.

The Best Parent-Teacher Conference Ever!

My husband and I attended a meeting with Mrs. S, our son's third grade teacher. It was our best teacher meeting - ever! I was so happy, I got teary-eyed.

You see, my son is the well liked average student in class. His schoolwork is average and he is neither teacher's pet nor problem child. He's the kid that blends in and squeaks by unnoticed. Historically, our teacher meetings end with "He could do better, if he just applied himself." But today's meeting was different . . .

Mrs. S said "I'm crazy about your son and am so glad to have him in my class." Mrs. S finds my son's outbursts of laughter infectious instead of disruptive. She finds his goofy personality charming instead of obnoxious. She believes his wacky journal writing is detailed and creative instead of strange. She doesn't see an underachiever. Mrs. S sees my son and appreciates who he is, but doesn't criticize who he isn't. Having a teacher like Mrs. S is a rare occurrence in our competitive public school district. My son is very lucky.

This trimester, I'll be cheering for the average students who work hard everyday, but go unnoticed. Good luck on your parent-teacher conference. I hope your meeting is as positive and surprising as ours.